Published: 11 October 2026 | Category: 5G
1. Why a 5G Test for Northwest NT?
In recent years, many people have moved to Northwest New Territories—especially Tin Shui Wai and Yuen Long—in search of larger living spaces. While the infrastructure here is getting better and better, many locals have told us that mobile signals can suddenly drop to 4G or even 3G in certain housing estates or village houses. For Hong Kongers who are glued to their phones, slow internet is just unbearable!
To help you find the best 5G network for Northwest NT residents, we packed our gear and headed into Tin Shui Wai and Yuen Long for an in-depth test. Our testing focused on a few major pain points that everyone cares about:
- Crowded town centres: Will the network get congested near shopping malls or Tuen Ma Line stations due to heavy foot traffic?
- Poor fibre coverage in village houses: Many village houses still lack affordable fibre broadband and rely on 5G home broadband. Which telecom's base stations deliver the most power?
- Commute disconnections: When taking the Tuen Ma Line to and from work, will you be stuck endlessly buffering when going through tunnels?
We'll let the data do the talking, directly comparing how the major telecoms perform across different scenarios. This way, you'll have hard evidence to rely on when renewing your contract or switching providers, so you don't end up blindly falling into a trap!
2. The Big 4 Telecoms Face Off in Tin Shui Wai Town Centre
Our first stop is the heart of Tin Shui Wai: the area around +WOO (Kingswood Ginza) and Tin Shui Wai Park. This spot is always bustling, especially on weekends when families are out and about, making it the ultimate stress test for telecom base station bandwidth. During the afternoon peak hours, we ran multiple Speedtests using 5G SIM cards from CSL, CMHK, SmarTone, and 3HK, and averaged out the results for you.
The results show that in open outdoor areas, all four telecoms performed very respectably. They can easily handle 4K video streaming or mobile gaming. However, a deeper dive into the data reveals that each has its own strengths:
| Telecom | Avg. Download Speed (Mbps) | Avg. Upload Speed (Mbps) | Ping (ms) |
|---|---|---|---|
| CSL | 385 | 62 | 14 |
| CMHK | 410 | 55 | 16 |
| SmarTone | 320 | 78 | 12 |
| 3HK | 290 | 45 | 19 |
As you can see from the table, CMHK won by a nose in download speeds, breaking the 400Mbps barrier. While SmarTone didn't top the download charts, its upload speeds and Ping were the most stable. For gamers who love real-time competitive mobile games (like Arena of Valor or PUBG), low latency is king. CSL delivered a well-rounded performance, offering satisfying overall smoothness.
3. The Ultimate Challenge: Yuen Long Village Houses & Rural Blind Spots
When talking about Northwest NT, you can't ignore the sprawling village houses in Yuen Long! We drove into the Kam Tin and Shap Pat Heung areas for testing. Village houses are notorious for their tricky network environments—many places can't get traditional fibre installed, or they charge exorbitant installation fees. That's why so many village house residents have embraced 5G home broadband in recent years. However, 5G broadband is highly sensitive to base station distance and building obstructions.
💡 Tip: If you live in a village house and are considering 5G home broadband, we highly recommend borrowing 5G SIM cards from different networks from your friends. Test them by your windows and inside your rooms before signing up. Just because the next village gets great reception doesn't mean your house will!
In our village house tests, we found that coverage breadth was the deciding factor:
- Number of base stations: CMHK has clearly invested heavily in its New Territories base station layout. Even in some of the more remote villages, it maintained three to four bars of 5G signal, keeping download speeds above 150Mbps.
- Penetration power: SmarTone's low-band 5G really shined here. Down on the ground floor of village houses (usually the hardest place to get a signal), it still streamed YouTube smoothly without randomly dropping to 4G.
- Stability test: CSL performed brilliantly on main streets, but the signal occasionally fluctuated when entering some hillside village houses. 3HK offered decent speeds in popular villages (like near Tai Tong), but fell slightly short in more obscure locations.
So, choosing a rural 5G plan really needs to be "tailor-made." Depending on which village or even which alley you live in, the results can be completely different.
4. Tuen Ma Line Commute Test: Will You Disconnect in the Tunnels?
Northwest NT residents take the Tuen Ma Line to commute to the urban areas every day, often spending an hour or more on the train. This is the perfect time to watch Netflix or listen to podcasts on your phone. But the Tai Lam Tunnel section from Kam Sheung Road to Tsuen Wan West used to be known as a "network Bermuda Triangle"—once you entered, you were cut off from the world. Now that 5G has been upgraded, has the situation improved?
⚠️ Note: Although major telecoms claim full 5G coverage across all MTR lines, some networks may still experience 1-2 seconds of lag when the train is moving at high speeds and switching base stations (handover).
We boarded at Tin Shui Wai Station and rode all the way to Tsuen Wan West. On the above-ground sections, all four telecoms performed flawlessly, streaming 1080p video with zero buffering. But once we entered the tunnel after Kam Sheung Road Station, the differences became clear. SmarTone handled base station handovers incredibly smoothly, with no video interruptions for the entire ride. CMHK delivered blazing-fast speeds inside the tunnel, loading web pages instantly. CSL and 3HK experienced slight speed drops in the middle of the tunnel, but basic messaging and scrolling through IG were completely unaffected.
🔥 Key Takeaway for Commuters
If you take long rides on the Tuen Ma Line every day and heavily rely on a stable network for Zoom meetings or snatching concert tickets, we recommend prioritizing network providers that have specifically optimized their MTR coverage. The overall experience will be much smoother, and you won't have to worry about infuriating sudden disconnections in the tunnels.
5. Summary: How to Choose the Best 5G Plan for You?
After a series of tests, we can draw one conclusion: the 5G networks in Tin Shui Wai and Yuen Long are highly mature and definitely not a "wasteland." However, as the saying goes, "there is no best network, only the best plan for you." Choosing a provider depends entirely on your lifestyle and living environment. To sum up, you can make your decision based on these three directions:
- If you live in a village house: We strongly recommend testing it out first! Generally speaking, CMHK has broader base station coverage, while SmarTone offers strong penetration power, making them top choices for families relying on 5G home broadband.
- If you're an urban commuter: If you value stability and low latency, and don't want lag while gaming or watching videos, consider SmarTone or CSL. They handle network traffic allocation quite well during peak hours.
- If you're looking for ultimate value: If you get good reception at both home and work, 5G plans from 3HK or HKBN are usually the most cost-effective. You can easily get over 100GB of data for just over $100 a month, saving you plenty of lunch money!
Since every telecom has its strengths, blindly following the crowd and signing a contract will only lead to regret. Want to know which one suits you best? You don't have to painstakingly compare prices yourself. By using a professional platform to compare the latest offers and hidden plans from different telecoms, you can easily pick a cheap and stable 5G service!